Crash on Volturnus
by drmike
Summary: A Daria story set in the Star Frontiers Universe
1. Chapter 1

Crash on Volturnus  
By Dr. Mike

Story originally created by Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles. Story originally edited by Troy Denning. Original story copyright 1982 by TSR Inc.

Daria Morgendorffer leaned her head against the wall of the shower and closed her eyes. She had retreated into the warmth of the hot water ever since the captain of the Serena Dawn had notified her via ship intercom that they were entering orbit around the planet Volturnus. Daria had thanked the captain, paged Dorin to start scans of the planet, and run for the shower. She sighed as she lifted her head and reached for the shampoo once again. Reaching out a hand, she pushed the controlling panel a few times increasing the temperature. She hated cold showers.

The door buzzed demanding her attention. Maybe if I ignored it, who ever it is will go away, she thought while rubbing the creamy liquid thru her hair and rinsing it out under the scalding hot water. There wouldn't be any opportunity to take long hot showers once they landed on the planet. They would have to put up with using sonic showers. Maybe she could get either C'hting or Kurn to rig something up using the engine of one of their explorersƒÝ

"Daria, I can hear the water running in the shower. You're going to be a prune if you don't get out of there," Jane yelled as she banged against the door. "I'm sure that you've washed you hair plenty of times by now."

Daria slammed the water panel with a hand to stop the water and hot air blasted out from all around her, quickly drying her body. There was something about a Wouter shower that just made her feel all tingly inside. She reached for a nearby set of black stretch coveralls.

"Damn it Daria. You can let me in now. I've seen your naked ass plenty of times. You should be proud of it. While just the other day, Dorin was telling me that even he liked it and he's a blob!"

Daria, one hand zipping up the front of her coveralls, reached out with her other hand and clicked a switch on the top of her desktop. The door to her cabin slid open. Jane Lane stepped thru the door, watched it close behind her, and gave a near perfect salute while trying her best not to smirk too much.

"Assistant Team Leader Jane Lane reporting for duty, Madam Ms. Daria Morgendorffer, team leader extraordinaire for the exploration of the planet Volturnus and soon to be rescuer of the lost mission nine months before us. Tell me. Do you want me to kiss your ass now or in front of the crew?"

"Do that again and I'll kick your ass all the way back to the home worlds."

Jane smirked as she dropped herself into a nearby chair, propping her booted feet onto the top of Daria's desk. She wore her normal black stretch coveralls as well but had added the red vest that was standard for Truane's Star Militia units. A towel wrapped itself around her neck as Daria noticed Jane's own wet hair. Jane removed a stylus from one of the many pockets in her jacket, grabbed Daria's tablet off of the desk and began to run thru the information presented on the screen. She took a quick look around the small cabin while waiting for another page to come up on the screen. Daria slipped her boots on.

"Daria, I would have thought you would have been packed and ready to go. It's a five day trip from Truane's Star. My stuff is already down at the shuttle."

Daria removed her own jacket from the back of Jane's chair. Her jacket was green with a big logo for Pan Galactic on the breast, a gift from her Aunt Amy years ago. She paused before answering and placed another stack of coveralls into a bag sitting on the top of her bed.

"I've got Dorin mapping the planet and looking for anything unusual. He won't be done anytime soon." She zipped the bag closed and started work on filling the second bag.

"Um, yeah. He assigned one of the crew members to run the scans since he was kind of busy." Daria turned to see Jane look away as she brushed her hair dry.

"Um, was he a bit busy?"

"A little." Jane acknowledged.

"Sorry about that."

Jane smirked. "Oh, I'm sure we'll be having campfires and the like on Volturnus. And I know how much you love camping."

Daria smirked slightly as she remembered the time her and her family had gone camping. Her father was still complaining over the bill Star Law had sent them for the rescue. Jane gave her hair a final rubbing and tossed her towel into Daria's open bag.

"See? I'm a big help."

"Sure you are." Daria removed the wet towel from the top of her clean clothes and tossed it into a nearby corner. "Pretend you're an even bigger help and tell me where we stand."

"Yes, ma'am." Jane missed Daria's dirty look as she flipped thru a few more pages of information. "The Serena Dawn, this wonderful hunk of 30 year old star craft, will be in orbit around the planet Volturnus in about 30 minutes. You would have thought that explorers of our experience would have rated something better but I guess not. Truane's Star, the system we left five days ago, has hired us and the rest of our crew to conduct a preliminary exploration of this newly discovered planet. We're supposed to map as much of the planet as possible paying close attention to any mineral deposits that we find. Truane's Star is also interested in having us contact and study any intelligent races that we come into contact with. Well, hopefully come into contact with. My bet is that either you or C'hting will probably scare them off first thoughƒÝ"

"I hate you." Daria zipped up her second bag and turned to work on her third. "Jane, I know all this. We also have to keep an eye out for the original exploration team that they sent here nine months ago and never heard another word from." Daria paused for a second as she thought of something. "I still don't understand why they sent us though. The first team that they sent was highly experienced. The six of us together don't have the background that even one of them had."

Jane shrugged. They both had poured over the brief of the original team as part of their brief on this mission. Commander Louis V. Jameson, the leader of the team, was a long term veteran of the Truane's Star military forces, a holder of the Truane's Star Medal of Valor, and the commander of two previous exploration missions. Geeko-sur-Mang, was an Yazirian expert in Geology and computers. Dr. Itklikdil, a female Vrusk on loan from Capital University, had been their environmental and cartographer expert. Grod, a Dralasite, had been their technician and was a genius in anything that had to do with technology.

"Well maybe they were just waiting for us to come along, Daria. And it's not like we're that short of experience. I seem to remember us having a few adventures since we paid your aunt a visit."

Daria thought back over the last few months. She and Jane had traveled to Capital City to visit Daria's Aunt Amy. There had been an issue with Ms. Li, their high school principal, and a poster that the two of them had designed together. Daria's mother had decided that a small vacation had been in order to allow things to cool down. Aunt Amy worked as a middle level planet manager for the megacorp Pan Galactic. Little did they expect to interrupt a Sathar agent during their tour of the building. Amy had been knocked unconscious before being able to raise any alarm and it had been up to Jane and Daria to stop the spy. After a hair raising chase thru the city, they had finally caught him just as he had tried to board a shuttle to escape from the planet. Their training in Ms. Barch's self defense courses had actually paid off that day, much to their surprise as well as the agent's. They doubted he had thought that two high school students would have taken down a well trained agent such as himself. After Amy had been awakened, luckly with no bruises, just a nasty headache, she had offered both Daria and Jane jobs as trouble shooters for the summer. Since then they had had to rescue themselves from a shuttle crash in the remote jungle while they had been escorting a package to another base, defeated another security breach within Aunt Amy's compound, captured an alien creature after it had escaped from the Capital Zoo, and rescued survivors from yet another shuttle crash.

The strange thing was Amy, Daria and Jane had thought that these missions were connected in some way. While they were too busy just trying to get rescued after the first shuttle crash, there was plenty of evidence at the site of the second one. One part of the bomb that had brought down the second shuttle bore a red marking of some sort. Also the men who had conducted the second security breach all wore the tattoo of a red devil surrounded by a circle of stars. A hypo found by the cage of the zoo creature that had escaped had also been marked with the same logo. The three of them had tried to make the connection over many dinners of pizza but it was still nothing but guessing. Well, that and the extra pounds that they had added due to the pizza.

Daria admitted one thing to herself. Both she and Jane had learned a lot in the past few months. Both had received a small amount of martial arts training while in high school that had seemed to serve them well. Jane had picked up some medical skills from having to watch over Trent, her brother, all the time. Jane had also put into practice what she called her "social" skills. Daria still remembered how Jane had convinced that businessman to loan her his speeder so that they could catch the Sathar agent.

Daria had found herself having to put into practice what she had learned in their biology classes. Jane wouldn't be alive today if Daria hadn't stopped Jane from drinking that contaminated water on one of their missions. Daria wasn't too bad with a laser pistol either. She had found that out when she had had to weaken the escaped alien creature so that they could capture it. Jane had looked on in near awe as Daria landed shot after shot against the creature with her laser pistol. Pity that the alien's hide was reflective and had bounced off Daria's shot but she had still hit it over and over again.

Jane brought her back to the present. "OK, now that I'm finished with Dorin, he's busy checking up on the mapping of the planet and getting the medical supplies together. Since the steward of the Serena Dawn locked up all of our weapons and captain won't release them until right before planet fall, Bakchu's worried about them not being in working condition."

"Is he that concerned? I know the probe didn't record any large creatures on the planet when it went thru a couple of years ago."

Jane shrugged. "You never know. I still have those scars on my shoulder from where that astrotiger attacked me that you had to shot off when we were looking for that crashed shuttle. That mission was supposed to be a cakewalk. Anyway, Bakchu is helping C'hting and Kurn make sure the explorers and the jetcopter are packed and ready to go. When they're done, the only things left to do is get out skeinsuits out of storage and our weapons out of the ship's locker." Jane looked at the chronocom on her wrist. "Hmm, we should have made orbit by now. I wonder why they haven't paged us yet."

"I'm sure they'll let us know soon enough. For the last five days, we've had nothing to do but explore their ship. How many times can we look at the recreation areas, the observation dome, the cargo bay, the lifeboats, the gallery, and the living quarters. I'm sure that they'll be happy to get rid of us," Daria said as she reached out for her laptop from Jane and placed it along with her environmental gear into her third and last bag. This was a small backpack that she now placed on her back. "Sounds like we're set. Can you help me down to the shuttle with my stuff?"

"Damn it, Daria. You packed more stuff than Quinn would have."

"It'll be at least three months before the Serena Dawn picks us back up. At least I left the hairdryer at home." Daria handed Jane one of the bags while she picked up one herself. She paused to have one more look around her cabin. "I always feel like I'm forgetting something."

Both of them lifted their heads sharply when a small thump was heard off in the distance.

"Did you hear that?" Jane asked.

"You've probably worn Dorin out again and he dropped something in the cargo hold."

Jane smirked. "Oh, I wasn't that hard on him. Plus with that rubbery skin of his, I seriously doubt I'll ever wear him out."

A worried frown appeared on both their faces as a pair of thumps is heard again in the distance along with the sound of scuffling from just outside Daria's cabin.

"Help!"

"That came from just outside, Daria." They both turn towards the door as a short scream was cut off by a loud thud.

Daria pushed the door release. The bloodied body of the ships' steward laid on the floor before them, the handle of a vibroknife stuck out of his chest. Both Daria and Jane gasped at the sudden sight. They had both seen dead bodies before but it still came as a shock to them.

"Well, well, well. Lookie here. I guess I'll just have to knock both of you off at the same time. Save me the trouble of finding you later." Another crewman stood in front of them. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a long knife.

Both Daria and Jane noticed the tattoo underneath the man's coverall. It was the mark of the Star Devil!

Team Leader Daria Morgendorffer uses Alpha Dawn Shampoo and suggests everyone should try it.


	2. Chapter 2

Crash on Volturnus - Chapter 2  
By Dr. Mike

Story originally created by Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles. Story originally edited by Troy Denning. Original story copyright 1982 by TSR Inc.

It was too much for Daria. She froze both at the sight of the dead ship's steward at her feet and the pirate armed with the knife standing in front of her. She had blown away the astrotiger without a thought when it had leaped out from a tree at her best friend, Jane Lane. Now, with the pirate advancing towards her, she couldn't move.

"Shit," Jane swore beside her as she reached out for Daria's bag of clothes and slammed both of them into the pirate. The pirate's knife flew into the air as he tried to protect his head from the assault. The weight of the bags made him loose his balance, the back of his head slamming into the opposite wall of the corridor and he collapsed in a heap on the floor of the corridor.

"Well, that took care of him. Maybe I should be thankful you packed so much clothing." Jane wiped her hands off on her jacket and turned to Daria. She smirked. "Someone fail their surprise roll?"

Daria shook herself out of it and turned towards Jane. "Surprise roll?"

Jane shook her head. "Never mind." She turned to look down the corridor at the group of four quickly approaching. "Well, it's about time the cavalry arrived. Where have the four of you been? Daria and I were helpless little girls and had to knock out the mean old space pirate all by ourselves. I mean Daria almost wet herself and I almost broke a sweat."

"Don't worry, Jane. Your knight in shining armor has arrived!"

Jane scoffed. "Shining armor? More like a big blob of rubbery goo if you ask me."

Daria turned towards the group standing in front of her as they chuckled at Jane's comment. This was her team and she lead them. They had run into each other as both groups had seperately tried to capture the escaped alien monster when it had broken out of Capital Zoo and had been together since then. It was strange that they all looked to her as the leader but someone had to be in charge of this bunch. She did get to set pay rates though. That was a plus.

Doren was the team medic, back up environmental specialist, official team clown and Jane's current beau. He was a Dralasite, a race of short, rubbery, elastic "blobs" for lack of a better term. His race had a strange taste of humor and Doren's taste was highly developed to say the least. He and Jane played off of each other almost better than she and Jane did.

He also had this strange thing for capes. He wore a bright neon green one now around his "neck" along with the tan stretch coveralls that he normally wore. His clothing choices never seemed to match. Daria had wondered if his race's inability to see color with those eyespots made up of veins and nerves had anything to do with it but, after she mentioned it to Jane, she had just shrugged and said that he really didn't care when she had asked him the very same thing.

"Please don't tell me that we're going to have to separate the two of you again. I seem to remember a pair of missing team members going off into the woods together when we rescued Rinay from that downed shuttle craft." The group chuckled with Bakchu's comment. He was a Yazirian, a race of human sized monkeys with a light bone structure, a muzzle shaped face, and large membrane patches stretched between her arms and legs enabling him to glide short distances. He wore his normal pair of tinted goggles on the top of his head, ready to pull down over his sensitive eyes if it got too bright. He was their team's weapons specialist, trained in everything from simple laser pistols to that large recoilless rifle he liked to polish between missions. He also served as their demolition expert.

"Oh, that couldn't have been us," protested Jane.

"Sure seemed like your back sides I saw going off of the path," C'hting replied. A Vrusk, he was their team's tech and computer expert. His was an insect like race with eight legs along his blue hard-shelled body and a humanoid like torso upright in front of their abdomen. Their shoulders were double jointed and could reach anywhere on their large bodies. He was dressed in the red stretch coverall that was standard for the Truane's Star armed forces. His ant like head sported a pair of antennae and two mandibles. Normally Vrusk like himself would have chosen a company to work for for the rest of his life but C'hting had decided to see a bit of the Frontier before "working for the bug" as he put it.

"And then the two of you came back covered in dirt and leaves," Bakchu chipped in.

"He told me that she had tripped with those long legs of hers," answered Kurn. He was the team's other Dralasite as well as their robotics expert, tasked to keep their six service robots up and running. He was some sort of relation with Doren but Daria wasn't too clear on what it was. He was also dressed in the same sort of stretch black coverall that Doren was but had omitted the cape.

"Oh, you three are just jealous," answered Jane.

"They may be jealous but I'm getting in the mood," Doren replied.

Jane looked down at her current beau and blushed. "Doren, not now!" She stepped in front of her boyfriend to cover up what he was doing. Dralasite's rubbery shape and lack of a skeleton allowed them to change shape at will, creating and retracting arms and legs when needed or even when the mood suited them.

Apparently the mood suited him Daria thought as she watched her friend blush a bit more.

"Oh, get a room you two. I thought you would have been satisfied by now," Daria smirked. That got the group chuckling yet again.

Jane looked down at her hands in an attempt to deflect the comments but gasped. "Damn it, I broke a nail. Just for that, I'm not making dinner tonight for you guys. You should have been here instead of making us fight the mean old pirate."

Doren pulled back in fake horror and cover his face with his cape. "Surely you don't mean that. I can not go a day without your wonderful cooking."

Jane whacked the top of Doren's head, smirked, and reached an arm around his shoulders. "Of course not. I would never again subject you to any of Daria's cooking. And don't call me Shirley." The group chucked and turned back towards Daria.

"If you are done, we might have a problem."

"Just a small one," Jane replied. Daria did her best not to look at Doren.

"Five pirates came after us in the shuttle hold. We didn't have any weapons so we couldn't fight them." C'hting replied.

"Strange thing was the weapons they were carrying. One had a bullwhip, another had a club..." Kurn said.

Doren filled in. "The third had a pair of what looked like shock gloves, one had an axe, and the last one had a pistol of some sort."

Jane thought for a second. "Sounds like an attempt to show the different types of weapons and combat in the game and how they're used."

Daria looked at her. "Excuse me?"

Jane waved her off. "Never mind. We need to get our weapons."

"The steward..." Daria's eyes peered down at the lifeless body for a second. "...said that he had locked them all up in the ship's locker."

C'hting nodded. "That should be on or near the bridge."

Bakchu looked at the body and sighed. "He might still have the key that we need." He knelt down near the body and began searching it.

"If we can get our weapons, we should be able to retake the shuttle bay," Jane said.

"We also need to get the rest of our equipment from the storage bay as well," Doren reminded them.

"I found the key. I don't think it's going to be any good though." They all could see a nick taken out of the plastic piece. Bakchu still tried to wipe the quickly cooling blood off of it.

Daria made up her mind. "Doren, you C'hting and Kurn head for the storage bay. You three can carry the most. Bakchu, Jane and I will make for the bridge and the weapons locker. Maybe we can also find the ship's captain and get his help. Grab any crewmen you run into. We'll meet you back at the airlock nearest the shuttle bay. All of our equipment as well as our six robots are aboard those shuttles. Any problems? Use your chronocoms to call the other group."

"And if any of you should run into any Star Law agents, be sure to clue them into what happening as well," Jane smirked.

"Oh come on. There's never a cop when you need one," Doren responded.

ƒAnd would you please keep your head down this time, Doren? You're short enough!" Jane complained.

Daria nodded grim faced and the group broke into two.

"Doren, what do you have in that one?" asked C'hting as he opened yet another locker and peered in on the boxes of human dresses. Give me a coverall any day he though as he peeked into the top box and made what he could of a face at the layers of see thru material.

"A case of Vrusk body wax? You want me to save you some?"

"Nah, got some in my luggage. How about you, Krun?"

"Machine gears of some sort," replied Krun. "Last one had Yazirian punching bags. Think we should save one of those for Bakchu?"

"Nah," replied C'thing. "He'll just have to make do with that rifle of his."

"I've got a Galactic Encyclopedia here."

C'hting turned to face Doren. "That might be of use. Which one?"

"Says Wikipedia."

C'hting turned back to the next locker and opened it. "Nah, put it back. It's worthless." Bolts of silk. Why would a ship going to an alien world be carrying bolts of silk. He shook his head. He didn't see Doren hold up a case of Dralasite steam bath perfume towards Kurn. They both nodded in delight as C'thing was peering into a box of costume jewelry with disgust. They put the perfume aside as they both liked their steam baths.

Doren almost cooed over the next locker. "I've got a crate of laser clips. Looks like 10 of them."

"We'll need those. Put them aside," C'hting replied as he found a holographic fireworks projector. He wondered about these humans as Doren placed the crate near the perfume.

"I found a medkit. Doren? That should make you happy," yelled out Kurn.

"Put it with the other stuff." Boxes and boxes of ball bearings? Why the hell would one want to have boxes and boxes of ball bearings?

"Anyone need a spare chronocom?" asked Kurn.

Doren chucked. "C'hting, I think you need another one of those for one of your legs."

"Very funny." Spelljammer novels? What the heck was a Spelljammer? And why did they waste all this paper to print them?

Kurn shrugged and threw the chronocom back into the locker.

"Would we need a crate of hand axes?" asked Doren.

That brought up C'hting short. Well, that and the case of chocolate anchovies in aspic he had just found.

"We might be able to trade them with the natives," suggested Kurn.

C'hting shook his head after a few moments and returned to his searching. "Nah. If we come across any races that want hand axes, I don't think that they'll know what they are to begin with." Doren shrugged and replaced the crate.

"Hey, I found a case of dehydrated rations. We can use those." Kurn was already placing them on the pile without waiting for a reply. C'hting had found a replica of a prized Vrusk statue. Well, at least someone had taste around here he chuckled.

"Found our skeinsuits!" Doren was already removing them from storage and placing them near the pile.

"I still don't understand is why we're not using the reflective suits like before," enquired Kurn.

"Any race that we find on Volturnus shouldn't have developed laser weapons. They'll probably have axes and spears. The skeinsuits will protect us from those types of weapons. The reflective suits won't." C'hting looked around the storage bay. "Did we search everywhere?"

Kurn came up to him playing some sort of computer toy. "Looks like it." He placed the toy into a pocket and looked at the small pile in front of them. It was a fairly bulky pile.

"Anyone see any weapons?" Doren asked.

"Nope, not a one."

"Just those axes."

"Hopefully Daria, Jane, and Bakchu will be able to get our stuff from the bridge." The group nodded as one. "Now, we just have to load everything up and meet the rest by the shuttle bay," said Doren.

"Um, didn't anyone pull aside some packs?" asked C'hting.

"I saw some in one of the lockers."

"I did too."

After a moment, with three sighs, they started their second search thru the storage bay.

Daria peeked around the corner of door way where the secure door leading to the bridge once stood. The bridge was in shambles. Chairs, papers, instruments, and unconscious officers lay strewn around the floor of the bridge. A group of four men stood around what appeared to be the radio console as Daria strained her ears to listen in. She wasn't surprised to see the red Star Devil tattoos on all of them.

The radio crackled. "Captain Straub to Slag. You done yet up there?"

One of the pirates lifted a microphone to his face. "'Captain' Slag here. We've take the Serena Dawn."

"Very good. About time you did something right." Slag's smile fell from his face. "Have you found the trouble makers yet?"

"Um, my men found them loading their shuttle craft but they lost them."

"Find them. They mustn't get away. And when you find them, make sure you kill them. Nothing can be in the way of the Star Devil's plans. She won't be too happy if you let them slip out of your hands."

He came to attention. "No, sir. We'll find them. They're as good as dead."

"They better be, ƒCaptain.'"

The radio clicked off. Slag turned to his other officers and began to order them to step up the search. Daria turned to the side and noticed that the door to the ship's locker had been blown off. She silently dropped the key to the floor. As she began to back away from the doorway, she noticed the staring eyes of the ship's captain. His body was lying on the floor of the bridge, a large portion of the man's torso had been blown away with laser fire. She silently said a prayer as she backed away.

"Think we ought to page them?" asked Kurn.

C'hting just shook his head. "Give them a few more minutes to show up. They might have been held up somewhere along the way." He looked at his own chronocom and tried not to worry.

They were well back from the entrance to the shuttle bay. The pirates who had taken over the bay had now posted a guard just outside of the entrance and left the door open. Doren had wanted to rush the guy but Kurn had quickly pointed out that any noise or action would have alerted the rest of the pirates. A few minutes ago, a dozen men had joined the group holding the room. Any rush would have been suicide.

C'hting turned to look at Doren beside him. He kept playing with a stylus that he had picked up from somewhere. Dralasites didn't sweat but they did get nervous.

"Doren, she'll be alright. She can take care of herself."

"Oh, it's not that. I just don't like sitting here and..."

The door to the elevator opened behind them and Daria, Jane and Bakchu poked their heads out, ducked under a nearby window leading into the shuttle bay and quickly made their way to the rest of them. C'hting noticed right off that they were empty handed.

"Bad luck I take it?" Kurn inquired.

"The bridge has been taken, the locker blown open and ransacked." Daria peaked over the edge of the window into the shuttle bay. Her eyebrows went up. "I thought you said that there were only five of them."

"Their friends decided to pay them a visit."

Daria sighed, closed her eyes and banged her head lightly against the wall behind her. They could have taken five even without weapons, boarded their shuttles, blown open the bay doors somehow and made their escape. Now, with the extra pirates now covering the shuttles, there was no chance for that plan to work.

Jane reached out a hand to get Daria's attention. "We're going to have to go for the lifeboats. It's our only chance."

"But what about all of our equipment?" asked Bakchu. "We're going to need it on the planet."

"Well, Mr. Man with the Big Gun. Can you think of a way to get to our shuttles past all those heavily armed men?" Bakchu glared at her. "I didn't think so."

"Jane, knock it off. I agree we need that equipment but..."

"Daria, we need to get off of this ship if we're going to have any chance of survival. If we stay up here, they'll catch us sooner or later," C'hting pointed out to her.

"And if we go down in the life pods without our equipment, we're just as good as dead," Bakchu pointed out. "It's an alien world. We won't stand a chance either way."

Jane was angry. "What do you want to do, Bak? Just give up?"

"No, I think we should rush them and..."

"We go for the life pods." Daria's voice was quiet. She leaned her head back against the wall.

"But Daria..."

"Daria..."

"The life pods. They'll have emergency equipment and supplies. It's our only chance. If we go for the shuttles, we're as good as dead." That shut them all up. She had made her choice. Damn it. She hated being in charge.

Jane spoke up. "You heard the lady. Let's move it, people. The life pods are just a level up. We can make it easy. C'hting, you take the lead. You'll scare them." The group moved into the elevator leaving Jane and Daria behind. "You ok?"

"Why do I get the feeling that I just signed our own death warrants?" Daria made her way into the elevator with Jane following her.

"Whoa, pretty lady. Watch your step."

"Why, I do declare. You are a gentleman and an officer, sir."

Daria looked at Jane and Doren hamming it up. The ship had lurched, knocking Jane into Doren. Daria didn't know Jane could do a Southern accent. "Do you two ever stop?"

Bakchu pressed the emergency switch of the last remaining life pod. "Can we please get out of here? I don't like being on this ship anymore."

Jane climbed out of Doren's grip and whacked Bakchu on the shoulder. "Oh, you just feel naked without your weapons."

Bakchu nodded. "Pretty much. Now, can we please get into the life pod and get the hell out of here?"

The door to the pod opened. "This escape pod has been activated. One minute to automatic launch. Please board immediately and fasten your seat belts. Fifty five seconds to automatic launch. Please board..."

"Finally!" Bakchu boarded the craft and began to take the bags that C'hting and Kurn passed in.

An alarm went off on the bridge. Slag was the first to notice the red, blinking light. He whipped around to his men.

"They're on the life pod deck!"

One of the pirates lifted the automatic rifle away from one of the dead crewmen and pulled back the loading mechanism.

"I'm on it!" He left the bridge running.

"Twenty five seconds to automatic launch. Please board immediately and fasten your seat belts."

Daria and Jane stood outside the life pod making sure that they hadn't forgotten anything. They could hear yells, shots and explosions from around the ship off in the distance. Daria thought that they were beginning to get closer. Jane poked her head into the craft.

"I do hope you've all remembered to go before you boarded. I don't think there's a comfort station for at least five light years." She stepped into the craft. "Come on, Daria. If there's enough room in here for C'hting, there's got to be enough room for you as well."

Daria stepped into the craft, pulling the door down behind her. As she made her way to one of the front seats, she could feel the life pod turn and advance outward. The door in front of the ship was quickly opening. She could see the force field holding in the atmosphere within the small bay as she buckled herself in.

"Um, Daria. We have a visitor."

Daria turned in her seat and looked out a nearby porthole. A pirate had just walked into the life boat room and was swinging down his weapon.

"Punch it, Daria!"

Daria's hand came down hard on the "Go" button just as the pirate pulled the trigger firing a burst at the life pod.

Vrusk body wax can be found in your local supermarkets.


	3. Chapter 3

Crash on Volturnus - Chapter 3  
By Dr. Mike

Story originally created by Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles. Story originally edited by Troy Denning. Original story copyright 1982 by TSR Inc.

Jane smirked. "Suddenly, I feel more experienced. Hmm, imagine that."

Daria had no time to question Jane's bizarre comment. She was too busy flinching from the pirate's bullets, which impacted into the life pod. The craft continued its movement along the tracks underneath it, passing through the force field and into space.

Daria peered out the nearby porthole to see for a brief second the armed pirate laughing at them before the pod's thrusters turned the craft and began to accelerate it slowly away from the Serena Dawn. They heard metal knocking against the skin of the craft as it began to push through the debris field around the ship.

Once they had reached a safe distance from the ship, the pod's engines kicked on fully and they began to accelerate at a much greater speed, pushing them back into their heavily padded seats. Daria knew that the life pod was programmed to seek the nearest inhabitable planet and land in the first safe spot that it found. She just wished that the designers had given some thought about sound proofing the noise of the engines.

Jane looked up towards the ceiling of the craft. "I hope the shots didn't damage anything important," she yelled.

The rest of the group turned as one towards her with signs of disgust on their faces. "Jane, how many times do we have to tell you not to say things like that?" C'hting yelled at her. Jane shrugged and gripped her armrests as hard as she could.

Heads whipped back towards the front of the craft as alarms screamed over the roar of the engines.

"What the hell is it?" yelled Doren. Daria couldn't do anything but stare as nearly every warning light came alive on the panel in front of her, filling the life pod in red throbbing light. She tore her gaze from the panel to the porthole in front of her. The planet Volturnus loomed underneath them. As they passed over the line that separated day from night, she saw that the planet was shrouded in clouds. Daria hoped that the onboard computer would hold together long enough to find a suitable landing site under the cloud cover and get them down safely. The life pod began its descent towards the planet and into the night side.

"Come on. Hold together," whispered Daria. The outside of the shuttle began to glow with the heat of reentry.

The electronic panel above Doren's head blew open with a shower of sparks.

"Shit!" yelled Doren as he slammed the quick release of his harness and dove for cover under Jane's seat. His vacated chair ignited under the mass of sparks that continued to issue from the overhead panel. Smoke began to fill the cabin.

"Doren!" Bakchu screamed as the craft began to jolt from the turbulence of re-entry.

"I'm fine. I just need to brace myself..." Daria watched with fascination as Doren began to form himself around the base of Jane's seat. The glow outside the porthole began to fade and the craft lowered itself into the dark clouds.

They almost made it.

The pirate had gotten lucky. While most of his bullets impacted without effect against body of the craft, a single bullet had made its way into the guts of the engine, making a small knick in a vital oil line. It only took a few minutes with the engine under full power before hot oil had coated the components and for the volume of the oil reserve to drop dangerously low. First one part seized up, then a second and then others followed. It didn't take long until a vital part seized up.

Daria watched in horror as another set of red lights flashed on in a group joining the set already blaring for attention. Their heads whipped around to the rear of the life pod as the engine exploded and flames began entering the passenger compartment. The temperature within the compartment quickly rose from the flames as the entire back wall was now engulfed. One overhead panel after another began exploding, showering the compartment with white sparks as they tried to cover themselves with their arms. Daria couldn't make out who was screaming at the top of their lungs behind her.

They never saw the high outcropping of rocks that the life craft slammed across the top of, spinning it out of control and back into the sky. It tumbled end over end in the air, corkscrewing as it went.

Doren screamed in pain. He had only been able to get a few centimeters of membrane to reform around one of the supports under Jane's chair. Without any of his body material filling in the flaps of membrane, the support tore thru the membrane and he skidded along the floor, body material dripping like blood from his torn membrane.

"Doren!" Jane screamed in horror as a jolt sent Doren went flying through the air again. He slammed into the back of Daria's chair, causing her head to bang into the panel in front of her.

"Jane!"

Doren flew over the top of Jane's seat, his arms and legs flailing. Jane threw both of her arms up in an attempt to catch him.

"I've got you!"

The lights on the life pod's control panel flipped back from red to green as the backup computer finally kicked in and took control over the craft. Without knowing what was occuring inside of itself, the computer extended its atmosphere glide wings, corrected for the out of control spin using its thrusters at full strength, righted the craft, and began looking for a place to set down.

Doren screamed as his body whipped around. Jane had been able to get a hold of the end of his cape but it wasn't enough. Her wrist snapped as Doren's cape pulled one way and then the other. They watched in horror as Doren made one more pass over their heads. He screamed again as he plowed head first an open control panel causing it to explode and fill the compartment with another series of sparks and flames.

"DOREN!" screamed Jane as she strained against her harness in an attempt to reach him, ignoring her broken wrist.

The life pod skimmed a desert dune, reached back into the sky for a moment and slammed back to the earth, skidding along the sands until finally coming to rest against a small grouping of boulders. The flames coming from the engine compartment began to increase.

Daria leaned back into her seat, one hand holding her head, knocking into the hanging survival pack that had popped down upon impact. She turned back to the chaos behind her. Daria could smell the burning metal and flesh around her.

Kurn was the first out of his seat. He grabbed his survival pack and threw open the escape hatch.

"We've got to get out of here! It's going to blow!" Kurn yelled as he grabbed one of the supply bags, jumped out of the burning craft, and ran for cover.

Daria reached up for her own bag, noticed the fresh red blood on her hands and tried not to pass out. She could feel the blood oozing from the gash on her forehead. She watched C'hting and Bakchu grab their own survival packs and the remaining supply bags. Daria hit the quick release on her own harness and made her way to the hatch. She turned back to check on Jane.

Jane sat in her seat, holding her bruised arm close to her body. Her eyes were glued to the remains of Doren still wedged in the overhead compartment. His body, now hanging limp from the opening, was engulfed in flames.

"Jane?" Daria yelled over the flames. She wavered slightly from the blood loss.

Jane turned to face her, tears mixing in with the soot and burns on her face. "I... Couldn't... Save..." She opened her uninjured hand to show a small piece of fabric that had torn from Doren's cape. Jane choked on her tears.

Daria grabbed a hold of her. "We have to get out of here, Jane!"

Jane shook her head wildly. "No! I killed..." She clutched the fabric to her chest, her broken wrist sticking out at a weird angle.

Daria slapped the quick release on her friend's harness and yanked her upright. She shoved Jane towards the open hatch, picked up both survival packs, and made her own way out of the life pod. Bakchu was dragging the now lifeless Jane away from the crash while C'hting carried the bags. Daria turned back to the craft and gave Doren one last look. The flames had now consumed the interior of the life pod. Daria said a silent prayer and then turned and ran for cover.

Daria made it about 30 feet before the life pod behind her exploded into a fireball, lighting up the night sky. She was forced into the desert sand from the explosion as wave after wave of flame and debris flew over her.

After the flames had died down, Daria lifted her head slightly, noticing that the sky was beginning to get lighter. The sun had begun to rise. She could already feel the unbearable heat coming from the sun and it had not even fully risen yet. Daria looked out over the wasteland of sand and rock. No trees or grass or water or anything. Nothing but sand and rock. Daria struggled for a moment to get back to her feet but felt her strength leave her. With a moan, she slowly slid back down into the sand, drifting into sweet oblivion.


	4. Chapter 4

Crash on Volturnus - Chapter 4  
By Dr. Mike

Story originally created by Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles. Story originally edited by Troy Denning. Original story copyright 1982 by TSR Inc.

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. I have you exiting the airlock. You're looking good, Cynic One."

"I'm wearing a space suit, Cynic Base. You canƒTt see anything. Of course I'm going to look good in it." Daria smirked as she heard chuckling over the radio.

"Cynic One, this is Cynic Doc. I'm reading an elevated heart rate that's near the top of the scale. Please pause for thirty."

"Cynic Doc. Cynic One. Anything that I need to be worried about?"

She imagined the doctor double checking his readings. "I doubt it. Just take a small break. If anything goes wrong, Cynic Three is suited up and ready to go."

"And I'm itching to get out there, Amiga. Save some of those hunky space aliens for me," joked Jane.

"Roger that, Cynic Doc. Pausing for thirty." Daria wondered yet again who Jane had slept with to get approved for this mission. She had been nothing but trouble with the male crew for the entire trip. Not that they complained of course...

Daria paused at the top of the ramp, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She opened an eye to see if the planet was still there.

The stars were still visible in the purple sky overhead. She had been surprised that the reflection of the two full moons also in the sky hadn't overpowered the star's light. The rings around the planet were visible as well. The landing site was surrounded by reddish mesas and mountains but they had landed in a fairly clear spot. She would have to detail a flyer sometime to have a look at them. Maybe sending Jane off for a few days would be a good idea. Allow the rest of the crew a chance to heal.

Another shooting star skimmed across the sky, a fiery trail behind it. Daria made a mental note to increase the orbital scans. She didn't want any surprises landing in the middle of their camp this mission.

"Cynic One. This is Cynic Three. I know I'm the one with the bad math skills but I would say thirty seconds are about up. Not that any of you could last thirty..."

"Roger, Cynic Three. Cynic One. Cynic Doc. I'm showing that you're green across the board. Five by five. You're clear for a descent."

"Cynic One. Cynic Three. Try not to trip this time. It'll look bad for the viewers at home."

Daria couldn't resist. "Cynic Base. Cynic One. Why did you have Cynic Three suit up? I thought she was on kitchen detail for the next two weeks?"

"What? I'm not on.."

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. There's no way in hell I'm going to let her near the kitchen again."

"Hey, wait a min..."

"Cynic One. Cynic Doc. I concur. We almost had a mutiny the last time she tried to make pizza. Let alone the wear on the kitchen. And the full sick bay. I couldn't keep anything down for three days."

"Hey, I had some of that pizza, Cynic Doc."

"Cynic Three. Cynic Doc. Yes, and how was it?"

Jane paused. "Well, it wasn't that bad..." Jane said in a small voice.

"Cynic Three. Cynic Base. Could you please repeat that? There was some static on the channel."

"Cynic Base. Cynic Doc. I didn't hear her either. Jane, what did you say?"

Jane raised her voice. "Cynic Base. Cynic Three. Steven, see if you ever get any any more!"

As they continued discussing Jane's culinary arts, Daria smirked inside of her helmet. The crew didn't need a morale officer. They had Jane to keep their spirits up. Daria reached up with a gloved hand to turn on her helmet light as she started her way down the ramp. They just were not going to stop.

"And another thing. I keep telling you guys over and over again. You've got to wine and dine me. An alcohol bulb, a blanket behind the waste disposal unit, and a rubber doesn't mean..."

"Cynic Three. Cynic Base. That's not what you said last night."

"Cynic Base. Cynic Three. I don't know who you were with last night but it wasn't... Hey, Cynic Base. Take a look at camera five. I think you're missing something. And it wouldn't be the first time."

"Cynic Base. Cynic One. I was beginning to feel lonely out here."

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. Um, yeah. I have you on the planet's surface. Sorry about..."

"Cynic One. Cynic Three. Speaking of kitchen duty..."

"Cynic Three. Cynic One. Nice how you finally remembered proper radio procedures."

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. There's a small hill off to your eleven o'clock. Looks like a good candidate to me."

Daria slowly turned in her suit to face the direction in question. About a hundred meters off, a small hill rose up. A few rocks dotted the red surface but nothing she couldnƒTt get around. Daria's gaze skimmed over the landing site. Seemed like the best place.

"Cynic Base. Cynic One. Looks good to me. Should take me about five minutes..."

"Cynic One..."

"And would someone please sit on Jane to shut her up." The crew's cheering and laughter drowned out Jane's trying to get a word in.

Daria slowly skipped over the rough terrain in the low gravity, kicking up clouds of red dust as she went.

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. I have you approaching the hill."

"Well, duh, Cynic Base. I think the billions of viewers on their 3D sets watching at home can see that."

"Cynic Three. Cynic Base. Jane, I don't care if you're the captain's best friend and have known her for a dozen years. But if you don't stop interrupting, I'm going to drop you from the..."

"Shut up! Cynic One. Cynic Doc. I have you pegged off scale in the red zone. Talk to me, Daria. Tell me what's going on."

Daria stood frozen about five meters from the base of the hill, her mouth slowly closing and opening. No words came out though.

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. Daria? What's going on?"

"Cynic Three. Cynic Doc. Something's wrong. Jane, I want you out of the airlock now!"

"Daria? Can you hear me? Talk to me, Amiga."

"Jane, just go out there. Daria's in trouble."

"Cynic One. This is Cynic Base. Talk to us, Daria."

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Even Daria rocked at Jane's sudden yell over the radio.

"Um..."

"Daria, it's Jane. You ok, Amiga?" Daria heard the airlock cycling in the background over the radio.

"Um, Jane? I..."

"I'm sorry about the billions crack. It's just you and me, kid. OK?"

Daria closed her eyes and relaxed.

"Jane, I'm fine. Just... Just give me a minute."

"Cool with me. You and I both know that you just want some more screen time." Jane and Daria shared a laugh.

Daria took another deep breath. "Cynic Doc. Cynic One. How am I doing, Roger?"

"Cynic One. Cynic Doc. Your numbers are beginning to settle. I'm still sending Jane out there in case it happens again."

"Cynic Doc. Cynic One. Oh, come on. You guys are just afraid to sit on her. Don't give me that..."

"Now I know you're fine." He chuckled a bit. "Cynic One. Cynic Doc. Your numbers are back in the green. You are go for the crest of the hill."

"Cynic Doc. Cynic One. Roger that. Jane? I'll meet you at the top."

"Not if I get there first, Amiga!"

Daria used the inside of her helmet to wipe off the sweat on her forehead. She turned back to see the airlock's door open, Jane patiently waiting for the hatch to finish cycling. Daria swore that Jane was tapping her booted foot impatiently on the airlock's floor.

As Daria turned back towards the hill, she removed a foot long metal tube from a pouch on her leg. As she slowly climbed the hill, she extended the tube into a three meter long bar.

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. I have you at the crest of the hill."

"Cynic Base. Cynic One. Roger that. I'm planting the flag now."

She positioned the pointed end of the bar against the ground and stood it up straight. With her free hand, she removed a hammer from her tool belt and slowly pounded the bottom half meter of the bar into the ground. It was slow going for Daria due to the low gravity.

"Cynic One. Cynic Three. You always get to do the good stuff."

Daria smirked inside her helmet as she reattached the hammer on her belt. With her hands free, she pulled out the end of the Truane's Star flag to it's full length. There wasn't much density to the air on the planet but it was enough to fill out the flag and let it snap in the breeze.

"Looks great." Jane came up behind her. Daria heard the sound of someone biting into what sounded like an apple.

Daria paused. Something was up. She turned to face her friend.

Jane stood in front of her wearing a long white dress, one arm propped up on the other, one strap of her dress falling down off her shoulder. She took another bit of the red apple she was holding, chewed for a second, and pointed at the flag with a finger. "I can't believe we came all this way to stick a rod and a half meter of fabric into the ground though."

"Um, Cynic Base. Cynic One. Are you getting this?"

"Cynic One. Cynic Base. Not sure what you mean. Everything looks OK to me."

Jane swallowed. "I don't know why you're still wearing that monkey suit." She looked around at the sky. "Everything's fine." Jane turned back to the ship. "Isn't that right, Cynic Base?" Jane yelled across the rocky ground. There was no way her voice would carry...

"Cynic Three. Cynic Base. That's an affirm." Daria heard back over the radio. Jane turned back towards Daria and raised an eyebrow.

"Wait a minute..."

Jane rolled her eyes and tossed her half finished apple aside. "Cynic One. Cynic Three. I don't know what's wrong with you." She reached up to Daria's helmet and flipped the lock. Daria raised her hands in alarm but Jane was quick to brush them away. "It's perfectly safe."

Jane pulled the helmet over Daria's head. Daria was holding her breath, not understanding what was happening around her.

"Daria, you're going to have to breathe sometime soon." Daria made a quick grab for her helmet but it was simple for Jane to keep it out of her reach. Jane moved her head closer towards Daria and looked her straight in the eye. "Daria, you're turning purple. You do remember how to breathe, right? You learned how to do it as a little baby."

Daria couldn't hold back anymore. She gasped for breath, looking around in amazement. Jane leaned back with a smirk. "Now that wasn't so bad." She shoved Daria's helmet back into her arms.

"Um, Jane. What's going on?"

Jane shrugged and turned back towards the ship. "Cynic Base. Cynic Three. Everything OK?"

"Cynic One and Three. Cynic Base. Everything's hunky dory over here. Wompa Flight will be overhead shortly. We're about ready to have tea and lollipops. Care to join us?"

Jane shrugged. "In a few minutes. Please keep an eye on us." Jane laid herself on the ground.

"Jane, what are you doing?"

Jane looked up at her friend. "Cynic One. Cynic Three. And you gave me crap for not maintaining proper radio procedures." She looked down at the dirt underneath her. "I don't know but something tells me to get into this position."

"Cynic Base. Wompa One. Passing over head in fifteen. Over."

"Um, Jane, you're going to get your white dress dirty."

Jane looked down at it and shrugged. She looked out at the landscape. "Oh, what's that?" She pointed off into the distance. Daria placed her helmet under an arm and looked in the direction Jane pointed.

As the aircraft passed overhead, Jane lost her balance and grabbed one of Daria's legs.

Daria looked at the scene from a distance. It seemed rather strange to be able to look at herself. It looked like something straight out of a recruiting poster. Daria looked down at the green jacket and mustard and black coveralls she wore throughout high school. Something was nagging her about all of this. Where was her space suit? And how could she be in two places at once?

"Daria?"

Daria looked around for the voice calling her. No one was near her. She turned back towards the landing site and watched herself and Jane, now back in her space suit, making their way back to the landing craft.

"Daria? It's time to wake up."

Daria looked around in confusion. "Where are you?"

"Daria? Come on now. Please wake up."

Daria slowly opened her eyes and instantly regretted it. She lay on a tarp of some sort while a second one blocked the sun over head. The worried looks of C'hting and Kurn looked down at her.

"Where... Where am I?"

"Oh damn! She's lost her memory! Can anything else go wrong with this damn mission?" Kurn yelled into the sky.

Daria turned towards him. "Kurn, I'm fine." She started to sit up but a sudden wave of dizziness went through her. "Well, maybe not." She looked at her two team mates. They didn't look too happy. "What's wrong?"

C'hting and Kurn looked at one another before looking back at her.

"Daria, we have a problem."


	5. Chapter 5

Crash on Volturnus - Chapter 5  
By Dr. Mike

Story originally created by Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles. Story originally edited by Troy Denning. Original story copyright 1982 by TSR Inc.

"She's just sitting there. After she put her arm in a cast, bandaged us up, and made sure you were fine, she took her survival pack and went out there. She hasn't moved for a couple of hours." Kurn looked down at his three feet for a second. "She's got some nasty burns. She needs treatment."

Daria looked out across the desert at her friend. Jane sat against a boulder, her arms wrapped around the knees that she had brought to her chest, slowly rocking back and forth. She appeared to be holding something in her hand but from this distance, Daria couldn't make it out. At least she had the intelligence enough to stay within the shade that the boulder cast, Daria thought. Daria looked up towards the Volturnus sun. It beat down on the desert sand all around them, making the sand burn through their boots. Must already be at least fifty five degrees Celsius out here, she thought. Daria lowered the edge of the tarp they were gathered under and turned back to her team sitting on the sand.

Her team. She was responsible for them. They looked to her for leadership, for guidance, for support. Now here they all were stuck on an alien planet with little to no hope for rescue. All they had were the packs on their backs and what little they had been able to scrounge up before escaping from the deathtrap above them. One team member had already died. How many more would before this nightmare was over?

Daria looked down at the chronocom on her wrist. The display was smashed. "What time is it?" Daria asked simply to buy herself some more time.

C'hting looked at the chronocom on his wrist. "Just after noon local time."

Daria started removing the broken chronocom from her wrist. "Any idea when sunset will be?"

C'hting thought for a moment. "With the planet on a twenty four hour rotation, I'm guessing in about six to eight hours." He gave what passed for shrug for a Vrusk. "Kind of hard to tell without the detailed scans we had planned on doing before we left the Serena Dawn."

Daria looked back at Jane. "She's going to get mighty hot out there even under the shade."

Kurn spoke up. "The emergency packs have water in them. She's got one out there with her. We haven't seen her drink any, though." He looked for a quick moment at C'hting and Bakchu. "We're more worried about what's out there. We don't know anything about the life forms on this planet. Something might..."

"Something might attack her before we would have a chance to rescue her. It would be better if we stayed in a group," Kurn suggested.

Daria nodded, her mind made up. "OK, I'm going to go talk to Jane. She's my best friend and I need to be by her. Doren was..." She paused. "This isn't the first time she's lost someone close."

Bakchu spoke up now. "Doren was our friend, too. Make sure that Jane knows that we're her friends as well."

"We'll gather up the supplies, make a note of what we have, and distribute the extra items among us," C'hting offered.

Daria looked at her team members before ducking under the overhanging tarp and moved out onto the baked sands. The rest of her team got to work.

* * *

Jane slowly rocked herself back and forth, her arms pulled in tight around her knees and her broken wrist now set in a cast. One hand held the laser pistol she had found within her emergency pack. Her eyes remained glued to the small patch of fabric set under a rock so not to blow away. Tears still slowly made streaks through the soot and dirt coating her face. Jane knew she was in shock and needed treatment but she didn't care. She had quickly and efficiently bandaged the other members of the team, silently going through the motions to make sure that they were fine, double checked Daria who was still out cold, grabbed her own survival kit and walked away from where they had set up camp for the day. She had heard her friends calling out from behind her but she hadn't paid them any mind. She just wanted to be alone. Alone to think.

Her thoughts had turned back towards Tom Sloane. She and Daria had dated him back in high school for a time during their senior year. Tom had been some rich kid from the local Fielding Preparatory Academy located back home. Jane had met him first at one of her brother's infrequent band gigs. She hadn't been too impressed with the beat up piece of crap hover car that he had driven but he made up for it in other ways. Whenever they had gone out, Tom made sure it was understood that he was to pay for everything.

Jane didn't want to rely on him or have him assume that she was going to put out just because he had money, but kept quiet about it. In a small way, it felt good that a guy was willing to pay for her on a date. Most guys she had dated had insisted on splitting everything. When she had finally mentioned that to him, Tom had sat her down and explained that he was just trying to make sure Jane had a good time and not to worry about it. Tom had known that Jane's parents and other family members were nearly never home and he assumed that money might have been an issue, especially after seeing the poorly maintained floor of the residence tower her family lived on.

Tom hadn't minded paying for the dinners and whatnot. He knew he had money and knew some thought him to be a stuck up snob because of it. The car was an attempt to downplay his rich background. And he had been more than willing to wait until Jane was ready. She had given him one of her rare smiles and even let him beat her at some of the arcade games they had played that night.

And then Daria had kissed him. Daria said afterwards that she and Tom had been talking about her while they sat in Tom's hover car. Jane had been heartbroken when Daria had told her the news. Jane had walked out of school, earning the wrath of the school's principal, Ms. Li, as well as a three day suspension. She had confronted Tom, beat on his chest, and finally broken down and told him that she had loved him. It had been the first time that she had told anyone that she had loved them. She never had told anyone those three little words.

Tom sat her down, they had cried a bit, and then promised that they would be friends. Tom had cared for her as well but they had grown apart recently. Jane had sighed, thought about it for a few minutes and agreed; they had grown apart. Jane chuckled slightly as she remembered Tom telling her afterwards how wonderful she was followed by her calling him a dork.

Daria and Tom had dated for a short time, never really hitting it off. Daria had never dated beforehand and had felt very uncomfortable. Both Jane and Tom had suggested that she just think of it as spending time together like Jane and Daria did, but to no avail. After a short time, they too broke up.

Neither Daria nor Jane had seen much of Tom after that. Jane and Daria had graduated from their school and gone off to visit Daria's Aunt Amy in Capital City while Tom had gone on to some prep school to take some classes before going off to college. It had been a great surprise for all three of them when Tom had walked into the same pizza joint where Daria and Jane had been enjoying lunch and complaining about the lack of security within the building where Aunt Amy worked. Tom had honestly seemed happy to see the two of them and they sat for a couple of hours just talking about anything they could think of.

At the end of lunch, Tom had offered to drive them back to their office. Daria had made some wise crack about the old hover car that he used to drive. Jane had seen Tom's face begin to fall and she quickly took him up on the offer, dragging Daria out to the sidewalk. The old worn out hover car sat there like before. Jane knew the reasons why Tom drove it. Daria knew that what she had said bothered him and climbed into the back without a word.

They had just pulled out into traffic when the escaped alien creature from the Capital City Zoo had slammed into their hover car. The safety devices in the car had automatically cocooned the girls, saving their lives. Tom had been instantly crushed. Daria, not knowing what had happened, had instantly gone after the havoc causing creature, pulling her laser pistol from beneath her jacket. Jane had sat there for a few moments watching the blood pool in his seat. Kurn, C'hting, Bakchu, and Doren had come running up to see if everybody was alright. Doren had sat near her holding her as she wailed while C'hting had called in the accident to the authorities and Bakchu and Kurn had gone running after the monster.

"Jane, are you OK?"

Jane turned to look up at her friend, Daria, standing just inside the shade cast by the boulder behind them. Jane noticed a look of worry on her face along with about a half a quart of sweat dripping from her face.

"I'm just sitting here." Jane turned back to her study of the small piece of fabric. "Thinking."

"Jane, you need to take care of your injuries. You just crash landed on an alien planet."

Jane held up the cast on her broken wrist. "And I've taken a shot of biocort..."

"The all purpose healing drug that you carry in your medical kit?"

Jane nodded. "Yup. There are about twenty doses in that medical kit the guys found. They were fine and you seemed to be as well except for the cut on your head..."

Daria lifted a hand to her forehead. She felt the clean cotton taped to her.

"...They didn't seem to need me so I came out here. Of course, we only have nineteen shots left of the biocort. Once that runs out, we're going to be stuck." Jane looked out over the sands. Daria noticed that she didn't look at the crash site. "Yup, just sitting here all alone. Not going out into that sun where I'll burn up like a Dralasite with his head stuck in the..." Jane broke off and buried her head in her arms. Daria could hear some sniffling.

Daria knelt down beside her. "Jane, you're not alone. You know that, right?"

Jane looked up at Daria, fresh tears mixing with the older ones. "I know. It's just that it seems like whenever I find a guy I like, something bad always happens." She looked up into the sky and raised her voice. "Not that I'm complaining or anything but I still can't see how SOMEONE rolled five tens in a row like that." She paused. "Don't give me that look. I noticed that you rolled the dice behind your screen too so that we couldn't see the results." She paused again as if she was listening to someone else. "Oh, bull. The rules didn't say anything about having the hydra creature being able to destroy a car like that. You just hate it when I pick some NPC to..."

Daria looked puzzled as she looked into the sky as well, trying to figure out who Jane was talking to. "Excuse me?"

Jane shook her head and reached out for the piece of fabric. "Never mind. We've got to get going anyway..."

The sand sifted near Jane's hand. They both froze. The head of a snake-like creature shot out of the sand. It also froze at the sight of them, its red serpent tongue flicking in and out.

"Maybe it's friendly," suggested Daria as they both stared at it.

The creature turned towards Jane's hand, still posed over the fabric. It flicked its tongue at a much quicker speed.

"And maybe it's not..." replied Jane as she slowly swung her other arm around, this one with her laser pistol.

They both gazed at the creature. It resembled a one and a half meter long cross between a snake and a salamander. It had good sized back legs with webbed feet but its front arms only ended in short stumps. The snake like creature had a rough, scaled skin like a snake but the body and the tail of a salamander. It slit its eyes and lower its head slightly.

With reflexes like lightning, the creature lunged at Jane's exposed arm. Jane was quicker though. Too close to fire her laser pistol, she brought down the butt of the weapon against its head. It leapt back in pain and confusion, shaking its upper torso in an attempt to steady itself.

Jane didn't give it a chance. With a one handed flip of her weapon, she aimed and fired. The energy released by the weapon blew a chunk out of its middle, almost cutting the creature into two. It landed five meters away in the hot sun. Jane turned to look at Daria and smirked.

"Well, Tex. That there was some mighty fine shooting I done just did." She looked Daria over and frowned. "By the way, where's your weapon?"

Daria froze. She had broken the first rule of explorers. Never be without your weapon. She mentally kicked herself.

"I was more worried about you?" Daria suggested.

Jane placed her laser pistol on safety and holstered it. She looked at her friend, thought for a second, pulled out her weapon and handed it to Daria.

"Daria, I don't want to lose you either. Take it. You're a better shot anyway."

"Actually, we'll just give her her own weapon." Daria and Jane turned to see Bakchu handing her a loaded backpack and her laser pistol. "Fully charged. Should be twenty shots unless you turn up the power. We have a few extra clips but not many. Make them count." Bakchu turned towards Jane. "You OK?"

Jane shrugged. "I'll survive." She turned towards the destroyed lifeboat. It was the first time she had looked at it. Daria could see a small shudder pass through her body. Jane wrapped her arms around herself tightly. "Yeah, I'll survive," Jane added in a small voice.

Daria took the offered items, holstered her laser pistol and strapped on her backpack. Jane picked up her own pack and strapped it on as well. After a moment, Jane reached down and recovered the small piece of fabric, looked at it for a second, and placed it in a belt pouch.

"We better get going," Jane suggested. Daria shook her head and scanned the sky. No clouds.

"No, it's too hot and we'll just burn up. We'll drink all of our water within a day."

"Kurn thinks he sees some sort of oasis off to the east," Bakchu suggested. "He thinks it's about eight clicks off."

"Eight clicks. What a surprise," Jane said.

Daria nodded. "We'll wait until dark and then head out. It'll be cooler and we'll save water."

"I don't know about you two but that snake thing is beginning to smell as bad as Trent's room. I think we need to leave." Jane covered her nose and mouth. "At least from around here," Jane mumbled.

Daria took a whiff. "That's an understatement."

"Damn, why did it have to be a snake? I hate snakes." Jane smirked when Daria turned to give her a dirty look. Daria rolled her eyes before she, Jane and Bakchu made their way quickly back to the rest of the team.

* * *

Daria strapped on a new chronocom that she had found in her survival pack and set the local time. It was a combination wristwatch, calculator, and a communicator with an approximate five kilometer range. They could probably live without the watch portion and she doubted they would need the calculator but the communicators they couldn't deal without. If something happened and they got split up, this was a mighty large planet to get lost on. She turned to watch the Volturnus sun start its slow slip past the horizon. Soon it would be nightfall and they would begin their trek across the desert.

"I think we better go over what's in our packs and make sure we have everything," C'hting suggested.

Daria nodded. "I agree. Since you guys worked on the supplies..."

"Ok, in addition to the spare chronocom that you've already discovered, each pack contains the following. One machete for cutting through jungle growth." Bakchu read off from his list.

Jane pulled hers out of her pack and turned it in the light. "Now, that's a knife!"

"One box of matches. One all weather blanket. A first aid pack each containing a spray bandage, an antiseptic spray, and a single dose of Stimdose, a mild stimulant, and Staydose, a stabilizer in case you're heavily wounded."

Jane help up a large bundle. "I've also got the full medical kit filled with wonder drugs, anesthetics, plastiflesh, sonic and laser scalpels, antitoxins, and other neat goodies." She pulled out an electronic device and pointed it at Kurn. "And with this device, I can tell that you're male or what passes as male with you guys, you have a few bumps and bruises, and a slightly higher temperature than normal but I guess that's OK considering of where we are." She shut off the device and looked at Kurn. "And, oh yes. You're not budding. That's a good thing I guess as we don't want any little blobs running around now." She smirked as the group chuckled.

"We also have one compass each, a lifejacket..." He paused to look out over the desert and shook his head. "Ten salt pills to help us conserve our water, one flashlight, ten meters of rope, one toxyrad gauge to detect poisons and radiation, a pair of sun goggles, an extra pair of stretch coveralls, a pair of magnigoggles to see off in the distance, and one pocket tool with knives, screwdrivers and an extra flashlight built in."

"Somehow the builders of the life pod knew exactly what types of people were going to be on their ship and provided the correct sets of coveralls. Hmmm, imagine that," said Jane.

"We also each have a poly-vox. It's used for translating any alien languages from any aliens that we meet. For weapons we have a tangler grenade, a sleep grenade and a laser pistol with a clip of twenty shots with ten extra clips."

"Minus the shot I took of that snake-salamander thingie so I only have nineteen shots left."

"We also have a couple of jars of Dralasite steam bath perfume that, for some reason, Kurn brought along, the holographic fireworks projector C'hting picked up, and our skeinsuits."

"We need to put those on. No telling what we'll meet out there," C'hting suggested.

Bakchu look up from his list. "Each one of us also has enough ration packages to last eight days a piece. Plus the rations that we found aboard the ship which will last us a total of twelve more days."

"Twenty days," Daria added together.

"Our water will run out first, though. We only have eight liters each," Jane reminded them.

Daria spoke up. "They told me in survival class that one of us will go through four liters of water within one twenty four hour period."

"Volturnus is on a twenty four hour cycle," offered Jane. Daria nodded.

"We can save half of that by traveling at night. We can also save some more by taking some of those salt pills each day."

"So if we travel at night, rest under shade during the day, and take some salt pills..."

"I'd say we'll only need two liters of water each day."

"Four days," Kurn added up.

"How many salt pills do we have, anyway?" asked Kurn.

Jane opened the top of her bottle and did a quick count. She turned the bottle and read the label. "Looks like ten pills total. The instructions say take two a day. That means we'll only have enough for five days. After that, we'll need more water than the two liters a day."

"So, we'll have to find a water supply somewhere and soon," Kurn said.

"We could walk faster," suggested Jane.

"That'll just burn up more water," Daria answered.

"How far can we travel in a day?"

"About sixteen kilometers. Again, we can go faster and take shorter breaks."

"The water is what's holding us back," Daria confirmed.

Jane stood. "I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of sitting here and talking about our problems." She looked at the setting sun. "It's night time and that means we can move out." Jane strapped her backpack to her back, flipped on her flashlight, and walked out from underneath the tarp. She turned back towards the group. "Well?"

"Jane, which way are we headed?" Daria asked.

Jane looked around for a moment until finally pointing east. "I thought we would go check out that oasis that Kurn thought he saw to the east." She shrugged. "We're going to need water soon. That seems like the best place to find some." Jane turned and walked off for a bit. "Better hurry up. These boots were made for walking!"

The rest of the group looked at one another, rolled their eyes and started breaking down camp.

* * *

"So, what are the neighbors doing now? Should I throw them a ham?" Jane smirked as she looked upwards.

Daria stood on the top of the boulder, her set of magnigoggles held to her face. She adjusted the controls in an attempt to get a better focus. "Looks like some sort of hut with a few trees around it. Don't see any animals or people or aliens around it though. Maybe the hut's abandoned." She brought down her magnigoggles, replaced her glasses, and looked down at her friend. "But where there's a tree..."

"...there's got to be some water." Jane helped Daria down from the rock. They walked back to the group resting up against another boulder. They had come about seven clicks east from the crash site in about four hours. Daria had watched Jane turn briefly to view the crash site from a small hill before leaving the area. Daria hadn't said anything about it to her. "Daria says she sees some trees off to the east with a hut."

The group gathered their packs and headed off once again.

* * *

Jane and Bakchu stopped a few meters from the oasis. They scanned the area with their flashlights as they drew out their laser pistols. A small dome made out of loose rocks stood in the center of a half a dozen trees. It was errily silent. They advanced a few more meters while shining their lights overhead.

"Anything?" Daria asked over the suddenly loud chronocoms. They both quickly lowered the volume on their communicators.

"Don't see a thing, Amiga." Jane shone her light on the dome in front of them. A wooden door about a meter tall was seen on the left side of the dome. It was barred with a lock securing it. "The door looks solid. Locked up tight, too. You better send up C'hting with his kit to see if he can unlock it."

"On my way," C'hting responded.

Jane lowered her arm and resumed shining her light over the area. Bakchu joined her. "If it's locked from the outside, I seriously doubt that there's anything in there."

Bakchu thought about it for a moment. "Unless it's some sort of jail."

Daria looked out over the desert. She saw something ripple through the sands near Jane. She frowned.

"Nah, too small." Jane turned and shone her lights over the sands. "You wouldn't have room for..."

Jane's eyes went wide as two large creatures burst out of the sands in front of her. She threw up her arms over her head as large sets of teeth latched down on her legs and torso. Jane and the creatures went down in a heap.

"JANE!" Daria screamed as she pulled out her laser pistol and ran to help.


End file.
